Croatia
The INA Supervisory Board has not made any decision, as of yet, on the future of the Hungarian company MOL’s refineries in Croatia. A meeting of seven hours was held by the board, who in conclusion said, that before any decision was made by the INA’s Board of Directors, a development strategy needs to be outlined for the entire refining segment of the company. MOL is still seeking to shutdown the Sisak refinery, despite the comments from the INA Supervisory Board.
Klesch invests
The billionaire investor Gary Klesh has said that he is already looking for his next European refinery purchase, despite only just having completed on purchasing his second refinery in Europe. Klesch purchased the Milford Haven refinery in Wales earlier this year, despite the fact that it was struggling in the market place. Klesch purchased his first refinery in Europe in 2010, the Heide refinery in Germany, which is now highly profitable. Klesch has not released any specifics about his next European refinery investment.
Romania
OMV Petrom of Austria has invested 600 million Euros in the Petrobrazi refinery in Romania. The money is for the modernisation of the plant which started in 2010, in order to adapt the plant to the changes that have been experienced in the Romanian refining market. Oil product production will be increased at the plant due to this investment, and it is hoped that this will help reduce import levels in to the country.
It has been reported that Lukoil’s Petrotel refinery in Ploiesti has been searched by Romanian police and some accounting documents have been confiscated. Reasons for the search have not been disclosed by the police or Lukoil.
Russia
JSC Gazprom Neft has now 100% commissioned a sulfur recovery unit at its Moscow refinery. The unit has been newly reconstructed and refurbished to have a capacity of 2.5 tph which will enable the 12.15 million tpy refinery to produce commercial grade sulfur in up to 5 mm granules. This revamp is part of the company’s second phase reconstruction and modernisation program at the refinery which is expected to last until 2020.
Rosneft ha started the implementation of a project to build a pipeline to the Komsomolsk refinery. The pipeline will be 330 km long with a capacity of 8 million tpy of oil. The construction work is scheduled for the end of 2016. Oil is mainly transported to the refinery by rail at the moment.
UK
Ineos has acquired the gas fired power plant that fuels the Grangemouth refinery. The plant has been purchased for £ 54 million from Fortum of Finland. This is part of a £ 300 million investment strategy to keep the Grangemouth plant functioning and busy until at least 2017.
Sources: Portfolio, The Diplomat, OGJ, Reuters, Oil & Gas Eurasia, The Press and Journal.
Edited from various sources by Claira Lloyd